Recently, the frequency of occurrence of accidents involving domestic industrial pipelines increases. When industrial pipelines leak due to abnormalities, it leads to serious disasters, such as casualties and property damage. The main cause of anomalies in industrial pipelines is human-induced factors, and secondly material deterioration in pipelines or equipment. In order to avoid such disasters, full-time monitoring of industrial pipelines is considered as a priority. Although manufacturers of various countries have developed a monitoring system in this regard, the concept of the monitoring system is based on a monitoring of process parameters, an analysis of operating status and performance and still lacks the capabilities of detecting deterioration. In other words, this type of monitoring system only detects when the pipeline is damaged and leaks, and fails to meet the demands of the safety operation of factories and the reduction of risks.
The main technical shortcomings of the present industrial pipeline safety monitoring are summarized as follows. First, the environmental sensors or process parameters sensors set up at the site are used for the process monitoring to regulate the production process, and it lacks appropriate safety diagnosis modules for the logical judgment analysis. Second, it lacks the monitoring technology of sensing deterioration remotely, and commonly used non-destructive detection technology is only applicable to the position of partial pipeline where the sensors are disposed. This type of detection technology can only be used for detecting when the pipeline is broken and fluid leaks, and it is impossible to send out an early warning signal in the event of deterioration. Third, the operating environment of industrial plants varies with the system, structure and components. The sensors must have the durability to overcome the problems of high temperature and high humidity environment as well as long-term monitoring. In other words, it is not easy to instantaneously detect damage or deterioration of the pipeline due to the limitations of the conventional pipeline inspection methods and technique. Accordingly, the proper time for immediately performing maintenance and dealing with contingency is missed. Therefore, in the field of industrial safety, it is necessary to develop technologies related to diagnosis and monitoring so as to establish a complete monitoring system for the issue of pipeline safety.